Improving Public Administration

The Ombudsman’s office has a strong focus on improving public administration. In practice, this generally means identifying areas of public administration that are a common source of complaints from the community, analysing the underlying causes of these problems and assisting agencies remedy them.

There are a number of ways in which the Ombudsman helps public authorities improve their administrative practice. These are:

Identifying and investigating concerns about the decision making and practices of the Western Australian public sector that affect broader sections of the community. See the Undertaking own-motion investigations page for more details;

Making suggestions and recommendations to improve public administration and reporting on, and monitoring the implementation of, our recommendations. See the Reports on own-motion investigations page for information on the reports on some of the Ombudsman's investigations;

Providing guidance and support to public authorities for the development of their internal complaint handling systems. See the Effective handling of complaints page for information and advice; and

Providing leadership in integrity in the Western Australian public sector, including working collaboratively with other integrity agencies and our co-located accountability agencies. The Ombudsman is part of the Integrity Coordinating Group (ICG) which aims to strengthen integrity across the sector. See the ICG website for more details.

The Ombudsman's office also reviews certain child deaths and family and domestic violence fatalities in Western Australia. This function:

Reviews, investigates and makes recommendations to public authorities in relation to preventable deaths of children and family and domestic violence fatalities. See the Review of Certain Deaths page for more details on this important function.

More information

If you have questions about how the Ombudsman's office works to improve public administration, contact the Communications Manager:
08 9220 7555mail@ombudsman.wa.gov.au.